Chris Lewis (Australian rules footballer)

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Chris Lewis (born 17 March 1968) is an Australian rules footballer who played over 200 AFL senior games for the West Coast Eagles. Chris is an Indigenous Australian.

Lewis attended Christ Church Grammar for his secondary education, one of the elite indepependent schools in Western Australia. At the time, Christ Church apprently did not allow Year 10 students to play in the First XVIII football team (which was reserved for Year 11 and 12 boys, for safety reasons). However, Lewis' ability meant that an exception was made in his case. He was also a very good cricketer whilst at Christ Church.

In 1990, he won the West Coast Eagles Club Champion Award. He was a member of the 1992 and 1994 WCE premiership teams, as well as the 1996 Claremont premiership team in the WAFL.

In 2006 Lewis was named as half forward flanker in the Eagles' 20th anniversary team.

As a player, Lewis was considered a highly skilled player - his passing skills were amongst the best in the AFL. The main criticism of Lewis was his frequent suspensions. However, fans felt that he was given particuarly unfair treatment from both umpires and the tribunal. Lewis played much of his early football career prior to the AFL taking action against racial abuse, and thus racial taunts from opposition players were a frequent source of provocation. ^[1]

Lewis was 184cm tall. At the start of his AFL career (1987) he weighed about 74kg, but weighed about 84kg further into his career. He wore the #28 jumper, now worn by Ashley Sampi.